gray and brown lawn

Hey all,
I'm sure these question comes up a lot, but I at a loss.
About 60% of my lawn is new (like 5 weeks old) and was started on fresh
loam. The grass grew fine for the most part, but I'm having two problems.
1) Gray/Blue-Gray areas mostly in the new part. The grass has no
rigidity here (just lays flat) and watering doesn't seem to help. A web
search yields that this is a time to water. Does this mean that I
didn't water enough in the growth phase so that the grass didn't develop
deep roots? Is there any chance here?
2) I'm getting brown patches (on existing and new parts) about the size
of footprint. It's very strange since the grass there looks like it
died from underneath and the strawlike blades are just left hovering.
Plus the patches aren't round and don't have halos or anything, so I
can't seem to diagnose it. Ideas?
Thanks for the insight!
--Moe

Did you lay sod or is the lawn from seed? If sod, then some of the brown
spots are normal (roots didn't extend far enough into the soil underneath).
You may also have some dead grass at the edges; normal also.
Have you tried fertilizer plus watering? If it's not too hot in your area,
try triple 13 (13-13-13) on your yard at this time (or a water-soluble
fertilizer from a hose-end sprayer).
.

It's virtually impossible to diagnose this type of problem without
actually seeing it and knowing what kind of grass it is, soil
conditions, the weather, watering practices, fertilizer/chemicals,
etc. If your state has an agricultural service, you may be able to
take them some samples for diagnosis. Or call in a lawn service.
You;re right that the blue/grey look, with no bounce back, is a
classic sign of not enough water. Have you contined to water it
regularly? At 5 weeks in moderately hot weather I would be watering
at least every other day. This is one of the reasons why spring is
not the best time to try to establish a new lawn. If you apply water
when it first looks this way, it should bounce right back. Also, what
kind of fertilizer or chemicals have you applied? Too much fertilizer
with not enough water makes it worse.

Indeed. Good idea on the ag. service. I may bring in a sample of the
brown patches.

This is probably what's going on. Once most of the grass came up I quit
watering. This was fine for most of the lawn since I had shade there,
but the blue-gray patches are all in the constant sun. I'll do some
frequent deep watering to see if that helps.
Thanks for the input!

I had some of the same problems with my lawn. It actually turned out to
be a fungus. When I to the local store and picked up some fungicide.
The spots went away.
As you said the grass seemed limp, unwatered and grayish blue. I took
it to the local nursery and the determined it was fungis.
This might help.
Jon
Moe wrote:

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